To be entirely honest, Fujiwara no Mokou hadn't harbored any deep fascination for this new world from the start.
The only reason she had volunteered was that she heard Kaguya Houraisan was scheming to secure a spot. Driven by her persistent urge to pick a fight with her eternal rival, Mokou had immediately thrown her name into the hat. That way, if Kaguya actually managed to cross over, she'd run straight into Mokou waiting on the other side.
Then the two of them could resume their magnificent, centuries-long cycle of mutual love and passionate hatred...
Furthermore, her dear friend Keine Kamishirasawa had expressed a keen scholarly interest in the history of this unfamiliar realm. Since Keine couldn't leave her classroom duties behind, she had earnestly entrusted Mokou to take the trip, scout the terrain, and bring back a stack of authentic history textbooks.
So, she had officially applied using Keine's academic mission as her excuse (since her primary reason of 'hunting down Kaguya' had been firmly rejected by the review panel).
Back in Gensokyo, the moment Kaguya learned that Mokou was locked in for the Terra expedition, the lunar princess promptly and decisively abandoned her plans. For a committed indoor shut-in, the prospect of encountering Mokou's blazing, overly intense "passion" in an unfamiliar world was far too terrifying to contemplate.
Yet because Mokou's application had already cleared administrative approval, she couldn't back out without losing face. And so, here she was.
Standing in the opulent living room of the Lungmen villa, Mokou was starting to strongly suspect that she had walked right into a psychological trap—and had gleefully volunteered to jump in headfirst.
Unfortunately, she had zero evidence.
Unlike the others, who arrived with clear personal agendas, she hadn't given a single thought to what she would actually do once she set foot on Terra. Standing there in the spacious foyer, she suddenly felt profoundly awkward.
"Well, Miss Fujiwara, if you don't have an immediate destination in mind, why don't you stay here with us for a few days?" Remilia offered gracefully, breaking her reverie. "If you find urban life here unsuited to your tastes later on, you're free to head out to Higashi, or wander off wherever you please."
Mokou nodded in silent agreement. Since she genuinely had nowhere else to be, and her initial observations over the past few days suggested that Lungmen was bustling enough to keep her from getting bored, staying put for a while seemed like a reasonable plan. "Sure, that works."
Next came the Komeiji sisters, Satori and Koishi.
There was never any doubt that these two would choose to stay. They had made the trip at Remilia's explicit invitation—first, to assist in reviewing Flandre's psychological stability following her anomalous soul-fusion, and second, to give Koishi a change of scenery, since remaining cooped up inside the Palace of the Earth Spirits indefinitely wasn't ideal for a growing child.
As for whether the chaotic, noisy energy of a sprawling Terran metropolis would disrupt Satori's peace of mind, she wasn't concerned in the slightest. Koishi's Third Eye remained tightly shut, meaning she wouldn't passively probe the swirling emotional currents of the mortals around her unless she deliberately chose to open it. As for Satori herself, she had grown completely numb to the endless noise of surface minds centuries ago.
Her gaze shifted across the room to rest quietly on Flandre.
Before making the journey, Remilia had briefed Satori thoroughly on Flandre's unusual situation: a wandering soul from an unknown origin had crossed the veil and integrated directly into Flandre's being.
According to the preliminary observations of both Remilia and Eirin Yagokoro, the fusion was overwhelmingly benign. Not only had it spared Flandre from any catastrophic ego dissolution, but it had also noticeably smoothed out her historically volatile, destructive mental edges.
Neither Remilia nor Eirin specialized in deep spiritual anatomy, which was precisely why Satori and Kazami Yuuka had been invited to provide an expert appraisal.
From the exact moment she stepped through the dimensional tear, Satori had kept her awareness locked onto Flandre's spiritual signature. The feedback pulsing from the little vampire's soul revealed two distinct emotional layers.
The first layer was a faint, pleasant ripple of surprise and warmth at seeing her old friends again.
The second layer was the familiar, razor-sharp psychic energy inherent to Flandre's native power. Yet, every single time Flandre's mental state showed the slightest tremor of instability, the secondary foreign consciousness acted like a psychological dampener—instantly absorbing, diffusing, and stabilizing the turbulent energy before it could flare out of control.
If Flandre's mind was an intricate, towering building susceptible to earthquakes, that foreign soul was the massive tuned mass damper installed at its core.
Furthermore, under Satori's subtle psychic probing, she discovered that the secondary consciousness had almost completely surrendered its individual ego, fusing seamlessly into Flandre's identity. Aside from retaining useful baseline knowledge and serving as an emotional anchor.
Or rather, it was far more accurate to say that Flandre had absorbed all of it, making the distinction meaningless. For the Flandre standing here today, as long as she firmly believed she was Flandre, possessed all of Flandre's memories, behaved like Flandre, and embraced her social ties as Flandre, then she was indisputably Flandre in every sense that mattered.
Overanalyzing it any further would be sheer academic pedantry.
Satori withdrew her gaze without a word and glanced toward Kazami Yuuka.
Since stepping into the villa, Yuuka had seated herself upright in an armchair with an effortless, regal poise, radiating the absolute authority of a monarch surveying her domain.
Sensing the collective gaze falling upon her, Yuuka slowly lifted her eyes toward the tall French windows, looking out at the distant Terran horizon, before calmly spitting out two words:
"Flower fields..."
No one in the room expressed any surprise at her choice. After all, Yuuka was legendary across Gensokyo as the Master of Flowers of the Four Seasons; for her, only a landscape rich with sprawling botanical beauty could ever truly command her attention.
"Then let's make it official," Remilia suggested, tapping her chin. "How about we all head out to the outer agricultural districts tomorrow to check out the local flora?"
Even Hoshiguma Yuugi, who had initially planned to break away immediately and seek out the local drinking dens in Higashi, readily agreed to tag along for the initial outing. After all, they had just arrived; she could track down the local heavy drinkers anytime she wanted—there was no rush for a day or two.
As for the rest of the company, their curiosity was already piqued.
Just as the group was winding down their itinerary discussion, a sudden burst of cheerful noise rang out from the corner of the room:
"Eat my Hadoken!"
Heads turned in unison to discover that, at some point during the briefing, Flandre and Komeiji Koishi had quietly drifted off to a side table, sitting cross-legged on the carpet with handheld gaming controllers gripped tightly in their small hands.
"...Never mind them, they're just kids. Let them play if they want to," Fujiwara no Mokou muttered, breaking the silence. She patted her flat stomach with a dramatic sigh and pressed her palms together. "By the way, I completely forgot to eat before stepping through that portal. Is there anything edible in this house? Much appreciated, truly!"
Sakuya Izayoi glanced over toward the kitchen doors, where the two estate maids stepped forward with a polite bow.
"If you need something immediate, we have a batch of cheese and preserved-vegetable pork pizza that the young lady ordered earlier today," one of the maids reported. "We can pop it into the convection oven right now. Anything else from scratch will take about half an hour."
Hearing the maid's description, an awkward silence settled over the Gensokyo arrivals. Everyone exchanged bewildered glances, full of silent question marks.
Cheese and preserved-vegetable steamed meat pizza?
What in the world kind of culinary abomination was that?
How did that bizarre combination sound like anything a sane human being could stomach?
Yet, Mokou figured that since she had never encountered such a dish in her centuries of life, she might as well be adventurous and try it out.
Her adventurous spirit instantly gave the others moral support. After all, one of the primary reasons they had crossed over was because this world was entirely fresh and unexplored—they were, in essence, pioneering adventurers. Studying bizarre local culinary customs was simply part of the field research.
Thus, while waiting for the proper kitchen staff to prepare a formal meal, the strange fusion food was served out first.
Gazing down at the bubbling, unorthodox pie resting on the wooden platter, the group stared skeptically before Mokou, acting as the self-appointed pioneer, reached out and grabbed a slice.
She took a cautious bite—and her eyes instantly popped wide open.
The pie was a fascinating balance of sweet and savory notes, carrying a rich, creamy dairy aroma mingled with the rustic, savory fragrance of rendered pork fat and fermented greens. Crucially, the preserved vegetables were spread in a thin, well-judged layer, preventing the saltiness from overpowering the palate.
The actual flavor was exponentially better than its terrifying name suggested.
Seeing the genuine surprise on Mokou's face, the rest of the group let out collective breaths of relief and each picked up a slice to sample.
"Flandre! Koishi! Stop button-mashing and come eat your pizza!" Remilia called out, raising her voice slightly toward the two gaming addicts huddled in the corner.
"Aw, Big Sister! We're right in the middle of a fight!" Flandre whined without taking her eyes off the screen, her red wings twitching restlessly. "You guys go ahead and eat first, don't worry about us~!"
Hearing those carefree words, Remilia's eyebrow twitched, and she clenched her small fist in suppressed exasperation.
Fine, fine! Just a few minutes ago she was clinging to me talking about how happy she was that her big sister finally arrived, and now that video games are involved, she completely tunes me out, doesn't she?!